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1 June 2005
Volume 2, Issue 8
Free Voices
eZine of the People
Shout the Truth....
Gender Constructs: An Arbitrary
Assignation of Culture
By Tony Deland
Layout Editor, Free Voices
Our American culture arbitrarily assigns gender based on our physical
characteristics. If you have a penis you are male. If you have a
cunt (I don’t use the word vagina because it means literally,
a sheath for a sword) you are female. While Gender is assigned to
us based on these physiological reasons, we are taught from childhood
all of the less tangible things this assignation means, including
a lot of mental and emotional characteristics that we may or may
not actually feel or think. As a society we have, most of us, agreed
to this system of classification. There is a growing population
(not in the biological sense) of individuals who recognize the un-reality
of these assumptions and generalizations. Continue
Reading
FBI Joint Terrorism Task
Force Spies on Food Not Bombs
Food Not Bombs
USA
Last week, the ACLU reported they received documents that reveal
the FBI "is targeting peaceful political activists for harassment
and building files on constitutionally-protected political activities
and associations that have nothing to do with terrorism or other
criminal activity." Apparently, they are particularly interested
in Food Not Bombs, a non-violent activist group that opposes the
government's prioritization of war and military programs over social
programs. Continue
Reading
On The Folly of Browbeating
Newsweek
By Dimitrije Kostic
College Station, TX
Why is Newsweek now slowly rotating on the spit for slandering Washington's
efforts to "democratize" the world? A quick summary of
the events. On May 4, Newsweek published a short article in which
an anonymous insider alleged that a copy of the Koran had been flushed
down a toilet by personnel at Guantanamo Bay in order to provoke
prisoners during an interrogation (the article was apparently screened
by the Pentagon before publication). Responding to diplomatic pressure
on May 10, the State Department condemned the desecration and the
Pentagon opened an investigation into the affair. That did not stop
thousands from participating in angry protests in Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Indonesia, and the Gaza Strip in which several people were killed,
a number of prominent politicians and religious leaders in the Muslim
world issued strong condemnations, and official displeasure poured
in from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and the Arab
League. On May 15, Newsweek backpeddled, because their source wasn't
sure whether he saw the allegation in an official report or some
other document. On May 17, White House spokesman Scott McClellan
suggested the magazine should "work to help repair the damage
that has been done," perhaps by reporting how the U.S. military
"goes out of its way to treat the holy Koran with great care
and respect." Continue
Reading
The Color of Politics and
the Idiocy of American Racism
By Rodney Foxworthy
Baltimore, MD
I recall speaking with an English friend of mine just days before
the 2004 Presidential election. As an outsider to American politics
and society, he faithfully believed the American people would right
the wrongs of the previous four years, and I believe him to have
been dejected by my ardent cynicism. In so many words I told him
to “never underestimate the stupidity of the American people,”
which, truth be told, was a statement of anguish, one founded in
my distrust in white America, or better stated, the white electorate’s
predictable political behavior. Understandably, my English friend
had reason to think in the manner in which he did, as his image
of America was greatly misrepresented; in his short stay in the
states, he found himself surrounded by white liberals – and
one black male. Continue
Reading
Crying
Art....
The McLibel Quiz
By Franny Armstrong, Dave Morris, and Helen Steel
London, UK
Franny Armstrong's documentary "McLibel" - fifteen years
in the making - is to be released on June 10th in the U.S. Directed
by Franny Armstrong, "McLibel" follows the 15-year story
of London Greenpeace activists Helen Steel and Dave Morris as they
are transformed from anonymous campaign volunteers into unlikely
global heroes. McDonald's sued the single father and part-time bar
worker for libel in 1990, after "McSpies" infiltrated
their non-profit group. Continue
Reading
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